Tonight's episode of "BattleBots" begins with a recap of last week's episode. We're then informed that tonight will be the last night of the qualifying rounds. As I do the math, I realize that means that unless we get some grudge matches, one of the remaining episodes is going to have to contain only three fights in the hour. So there's something to look forward to.
We're greeted by Molly, wearing the same outfit as last week (as it's much easier to divide all of this footage into different episodes if the presenters wear the same clothes over the course of the entire series). She introduces Chris and Kenny (also wearing the same clothes as before) and Chris reminds us of the tournament format.
With that, it's time to start talking about the first fight of the night: Overhaul vs. Lock-Jaw. Molly says that this is a fight between two clamp bots. I'm going to bet that Lock-Jaw isn't designed to function as a clamper.
Lock-Jaw is a brand new robot from one Donald Hutson, the man behind TazBot and Diesector. The show flashes back to the Comedy Central days to show Diesector and its winning ways, followed by a profile of Donald himself. As it turns out, the guy who has a successful fighting robot builds robots for a living. Quelle surprise.
The show deems it unimportant to explain what exactly Lock-Jaw is supposed to do. The only information we get from Donald's profile piece is that the robot weighs 250 pounds. O...kay. So BattleBots has chosen to ignore robotic combat's traditional 220-pound heavyweight class to create its own 250-pound weight class. I suppose that's one way to discourage participants from competing with their machines at other events.
As for how Lock-Jaw is supposed to function, its primary weapon appears to be a set of Diesector-like jaws on the front of the robot. We haven't seen them in action yet, of course, but given the strategy Donald always employed with Diesector, I'm pretty confident that he'll be using those as a wedge and lifter more so than to clamp and drag the opponent. I truly doubt he'd be able to use those jaws to lift a competitor.
We go to the supposed battle rankings for the two robots, and even though nobody has ever seen either robot in a fight, the mysterious "experts" have determined that all of Lock-Jaw's scores are nearly double or triple Overhaul's scores. Lock-Jaw is a 97 in Control, whereas Overhaul is a mere 36. Obviously.
As Chris and Kenny discuss the two robots, Kenny speculates that Lock-Jaw will want to suplex Overhaul "like a wrestler." Okay, no. Lock-Jaw is physically incapable of doing that. I'm the one who's supposed to be inventing fantastical robot functions that have little to no grounding in real life -- not you, the host of the show.
Molly sends things to the BattleBox, and still the only piece of concrete information we have on Overhaul at this point is that its builders are from MIT. Faruq informs us that "if they were a rap group, they would be called NWA -- Nerds with Attitude," which I guess is somewhat joke-like. As for the robot, its weapon appears to be a sharpened clamping arm over a pair of lifting tines. Presumably, it is designed to clamp and lift its opponent toward hazards.
Lock-Jaw is introduced, and now the hosts are speculating that this might be a passing of the torch from the experienced veteran team to the rookie newcomers. Bu-but... the numbers! What about the 64-31 disparity in Weapons?
After the usual lighting theatrics, it's time to fight. Overhaul gets underneath Lock-Jaw a little bit in the first confrontation, but is unable to lift in time. Lock-Jaw escapes and struggles to reset its jaws in wedge formation while remaining level with the floor. Thirteen years ago, the biggest problem Diesector always faced was keeping all of its tires on the ground while returning its jaws to a wedge shape. I'm surprised Donald didn't do anything to make that process easier in the intervening time.
Lock-Jaw gets under Overhaul, which escapes before damage is done. Overhaul gets under Lock-Jaw, which escapes before damage is done. We're going to be seeing that a lot in this fight, aren't we?
Overhaul gets under Lock-Jaw and begins to lift. Lock-Jaw makes things easier for Overhaul by opening its jaws as wide as possible, causing it to tip over. Suddenly, Lock-Jaw appears to propel itself right side up, pushing Overhaul backward in the process. I don't think those electrically-powered jaws would be powerful enough to perform that move (especially not from that position), so maybe Lock-Jaw's tail is also actuated? Would anybody on the show like to tell me? No? Fine.
As Lock-Jaw gets reoriented, it's smacked by an arena hazard that nobody bothered to inform us about last week, and which I didn't even know existed. Apparently, next to the screws, there are stretches of arena wall that rapidly pivot out like pinball flippers. All of these revelations occurring mid-fight... these are not good surprises, show.
As for the fight, Overhaul slams Lock-Jaw into a wall. Lock-Jaw kicks it into reverse to escape. Overhaul gets under it again and delivers another wall slam. Then Lock-Jaw gets its teeth around one side of Overhaul's guiding wedge. Lock-Jaw tries to drag, which is difficult with only two of its six wheels touching the ground. Chris asks, "Can he flip Overhaul?" I don't even have to keep watching to tell you that from that position, the answer is "no." Lock-Jaw also cannot slice Overhaul open nor use it as a ventriloquism figure.
The pinning/lifting time nears its completion, so Lock-Jaw has to release. Some positioning. Overhaul attacks Lock-Jaw, drives up onto Lock-Jaw's wedge jaws, and Lock-Jaw pushes Overhaul into a... bumper? I'm going to call these new hazards "bumpers." At any rate, the hazard doesn't move.
Lock-Jaw tries to lift Overhaul, but Overhaul's center of gravity is such that Lock-Jaw only succeeds in lifting its own butt into the air. Overhaul escapes, and Lock-Jaw has lowered its jaws to such an extreme that the robot's body appears to be at about a 60° angle to the floor. The onscreen timer appears, and once again two minutes of the fight have been compressed to 90 seconds.
Lock-Jaw chases after Overhaul. Overhaul gets underneath and performs a minor lift. The front wedge of Overhaul locks into the front of Lock-Jaw, between the jaws and tire, and the two robots stalemate for a few seconds.
With time winding down, the two robots try to gain an advantageous position in close quarters. At the nine-second mark, Lock-Jaw gets under Overhaul and pushes it into a screw, flipping Overhaul over. Overhaul tries to self-right while Lock-Jaw opens and shuts its jaws. The timer hits zero and Lock-Jaw begins a charge into the body of Overhaul.
We cut to a shot of one of the members of Overhaul's team angrily pounding his fist on the box in reaction to the late hit. Donald Hutson tries to back off, but Lock-Jaw's serrated jaws have snagged on Overhaul's body, so Lock-Jaw winds up dragging Overhaul out toward the center of the arena. As Donald continues to try to free Lock-Jaw from Overhaul's body, Overhaul's team yells at him to stop, and an official also comes over to tell him to quit.
We watch some replays of the fight, and then we cut to the inside of the arena, where Overhaul is now on its wheels (having been safely turned off). Before Donald goes to turn off his robot, he walks over to shake hands with one of the members of Overhaul's team, who tells him that he didn't like the late hit. The team member refuses the handshake and walks out of the arena.
(Incidentally, I would love to identify this team member by name, or to identify Overhaul's team by name, but that information is never revealed. I'm starting to get the impression that facts are not high on the list of this show's priorities.)
The show, content with the controversy that has now been established, goes to commercial before the judges' results are revealed.
After the break, the late hit is revisited. Alison interviews Overhaul's team, where Charles Guan, upon being asked whether he thinks the judges will take the bad sportsmanship into consideration, says he hopes that they do.
Okay, time out. There are two sides to every story -- let's try to look at this objectively. Beginning with the actual slam that took place a couple of seconds after time ran out. Yes, that was absolutely a late charge that probably could have been aborted if Donald had seen that time was up. But here's the thing -- we have no idea how easy it is to tell when time is up. All of the sounds are added in post-production, so our perception of the volume of the buzzer means nothing. I assume that the LEDs at the top of the arena turn red, but those amount to a couple of lights mounted near the ceiling amid several other lights. If a driver is looking over at the far side of the arena, I don't know how easy it is to perceive that something in the sky has become red.
Is there any other visual cue that time is up? (I'm not including the digital timer on the side of the driving platform -- that's not in the driver's line of sight.) Do the referees perform any countdown, or verbally indicate that time has expired? Without knowing any of that, I can't determine whether Donald knew that he was attacking after the buzzer.
As for dragging Overhaul toward the center of the arena, that was clearly caused by Donald trying to disconnect from his opponent once he realized that the fight was over. When the fight ends, the two robots are supposed to separate, so he was trying to do the right thing at that point. Unfortunately, the machines were stuck together, so that action only made things look worse. I hope nobody was getting up in arms over that part of the hit.
And I understand that it was a leading question, but Charles -- you know that the judges aren't going to dock anybody points due to bad sportsmanship. That wasn't the right response to give.
Okay, so now it's time for the judges' results. We find out that it was a split decision. At one point per judge, that means it was a 2-1 decision. Pretty clever scoring system -- every result will be either a split decision or a unanimous decision. Makes things sound dramatic no matter what.
The winner is... Lock-Jaw. Now Donald Hutson shakes hands with the members of Overhaul's team.
Was that the right decision? I don't know. When I watched the fight the first time, I thought that Overhaul had a very slight edge. Yes, Lock-Jaw flipped it on its head for less than ten seconds at the end, but during the rest of the fight, I felt that Overhaul was a little more aggressive and successful in its attacks than Lock-Jaw (even though Overhaul's "expert" Aggression rating was a 31 to Lock-Jaw's 93!).
On the other hand, they only aired two minutes and thirty seconds of that three-minute fight. It's really difficult to form a valid opinion without all of the facts.
We move on to the next fight: Bronco versus Witch Doctor. Witch Doctor is a two-part multibot. The smaller bot is a wedge with a flamethrower. Molly describes the larger bot as having a 60-pound spinning drum. I'm sorry, that is incorrect. Witch Doctor's weapon is a toothed disk. A relatively thick one, but that is definitely still a disk. It would have to be a lot wider to be considered a drum. You're just lucky, show, that this is the first mistake I've caught you making.
Bronco comes to us from Inertia Labs, the team behind Toro, T-Minus, and The Matador. You'd better believe that Bronco is a similarly-designed pneumatic flipper. I personally am very excited. Kenny points out that if Bronco is able to get underneath that lower-weight minibot, it could get some serious air. He's absolutely correct, and I truly hope that that's about to happen. (It's kind of sad that I now feel compelled to point out when somebody says something accurate, isn't it?)
Our next pre-taped builder profile is of Andrea Suarez, the driving force behind Witch Doctor. By day, she's a biomedical engineer, repairing bone fractures with titanium implants. During the interview, she also reveals that the flame-throwing minibot is named Shaman. I appreciate it when the builders name all of the components of their multibots -- it makes my job much easier. And really, the primary goal of these builders should be to make me happy.
In the BattleBox, Faruq informs us that "it's robot fightin' time." Implying that if you came here expecting to watch, say, clowns fighting, you're going to be disappointed.
The fight begins. Bronco drives out to the center of the arena, ready to take on whichever robot is closer. It first gets its flipping arm underneath Witch Doctor and gives the robot a hearty toss into the air. Oh, I've missed your robots, Inertia Labs. Why don't you come fight at the non-BattleBots events?
Bronco chases after Witch Doctor, which goes sliding upside-down into the arena wall, causing it to flip back over. Meanwhile, Bronco has charged so quickly, it slams into the wall and gets its flipping arm stuck under the barrier. This is another reason you should come to the other events, Inertia Labs. This exact situation happens all the time, and you'd know that you shouldn't put such a thin piece of metal on the front of your flipping arm.
Shaman tries to activate the flamethrower, but only succeeds in spraying gas at Bronco. Bronco tries to escape, but is too firmly stuck under the barrier. And then Witch Doctor makes a big mistake -- it spins up the disk and delivers a huge blow to Bronco. Which is a great aggressive move, yes -- but it also knocks Bronco free of the barrier. If Witch Doctor had retreated, Bronco would have been KO'ed right then and there.
Shaman gets the flamethrower working as Bronco drives away. Shaman wedges underneath the back of Bronco, lifting all four of Bronco's wheels off the ground, and activates the flamethrower. Bronco fires the flipping arm to throw itself into the air to escape. The ABC Promotions department would like to thank both of these teams for creating a visually captivating scene that can be aired during commercials.
Witch Doctor produces a couple of sparks on Bronco; Bronco returns the favor by flipping it over. Witch Doctor once again drives into the wall to get right side up again. As it does so, Bronco charges and knocks Witch Doctor backward onto the screw. The screw tosses Witch Doctor up onto the barrier, where it can't move.
Shaman and Bronco start to go at it, but it doesn't matter, as it looks like BattleBots is using the rule that if more than 50% of a multibot's weight is knocked out, then the entire robot is considered knocked out. The countdown begins and Chris says that unless Witch Doctor can move, it'll be a TKO. Now, I don't know exactly how BattleBots labels its knockouts, but Bronco clearly pushed Witch Doctor into that position. There is nothing technical about this knockout.
All of its wheels are off the ground -- Witch Doctor isn't going anywhere. And even if it was, the screw would just push it back over the barrier. If I remember correctly, I used to hate the screws because they were overhyped and didn't do any actual damage. But this year, the screws seem to be influencing the fights too much, dragging robots up onto the barriers and thereby taking the wheels off the ground, all at the first sign of contact.
At any rate, Witch Doctor is knocked out. We don't get to see Bronco chuck Shaman into the air. Too bad.
Alison briefly interviews Inertia Labs. She's mesmerized by the flames that Shaman produced and ignores the team's discussion of being concerned about getting stuck under the barrier. Look, I'm trying to pull my punches a little bit because I really do want you all to succeed. But the viewers at home are already reacting with the "Ooh, pretty" mentality toward the superficial spectacle of robotic combat -- there's no need for everyone on the broadcast team to echo it.
In the aftermath of the fight, Kenny says of Witch Doctor, "They just got a little too close to the rail. When you have a powerful flipper like that, that happens." Which would be a valid observation if Bronco had actually flipped them over the rail. Unfortunately, that isn't what happened. It is a tidy way to summarize the fight, though, I'll give you that.
After the break, Molly sets up the next fight -- Counter Revolution versus Tombstone. Oh, here we go.
The next builder profile spotlights Ray Billings, the man behind Tombstone. If the name "Tombstone" isn't ringing any bells, then perhaps "Ray Billings" is. And if that isn't doing it... what if I were to say "Last Rites"?
If you're familiar with robotic combat on the west coast in the years since "BattleBots" went off the air, then you know Last Rites. It's the heavyweight robot with the large spinning bar that doles out untold quantities of damage. At competitions, it nearly always lands on the medal platform, including taking a couple of first place finishes.
If a builder wants to compete at BattleBots, then they have to sign an agreement saying that BattleBots owns the likeness of their robot for a certain length of time (this allows for TV deals and toys to potentially be marketed). So that he can continue to use the name "Last Rites" at other tournaments, Ray has rechristened his robot "Tombstone," a name which he had used for a super heavyweight version of the robot that he competed with several years ago.
Ray's profile consists of the one thing we expect to see in a video piece about Tombstone: Slow-motion footage of the robot destroying vulnerable targets. Ray says that he's going to cause the most damage and I believe him -- I've personally seen him do it time and time again.
After Tombstone is brought into the arena, we see its opponent: Counter Revolution. We're not given any information about the robot, but it's pretty obvious that its offense consists of two large spinning disks mounted on either end of its body. There is also a lifting arm guarding one of the sides. I'm pretty sure I've seen this robot before -- let me check my old notes... yep. The last time I myself saw Counter Revolution compete was in 2009. The lifting arm is new. If I remember correctly, those spinning disks are indeed capable of doing damage, but going up against Tombstone... my heart goes out to its builder.
Faruq does his introductions. For Tombstone, he says, "In the blue square... Here to read your last rites: The one, the only, Tombstone!" That got a genuine laugh out of me. They had to have done that on purpose, right?
Kenny tells us to get ready for sparks. You know, I'm usually the first person to caution about overselling things, but I think in this case, we can prepare for more than just sparks.
The fight begins. Both robots get their weapons up to speed. Counter Revolution approaches Tombstone. I involuntarily tense up.
Counter Revolution turns to try to get to the side of Tombstone. Tombstone lunges, taking a huge gash out of Counter Revolution's side armor. Counter Revolution was wise to place its lifting arm in the upright position, because otherwise, it would be gone now.
Wires are hanging out of Counter Revolution's wound. It starts to limp away and Tombstone attacks its other side. Another huge gash! Counter Revolution is no longer capable of driving anywhere and its disks start to spin down. That's very much a knockout.
Tombstone, still at terrifying top speed, waits nearby in case Counter Revolution starts moving again. When it's clear that Counter Revolution is dead, Ray spins Tombstone around to hit a piece of debris, propelling it like a bullet across the arena. Chris looks absolutely terrified. That's what Tombstone does, my friend.
Ray cheerfully attacks another piece of debris. Then he drives over and delivers another damaging blow to Counter Revolution itself. I've seen enough fights with Ray to know that once his opponent is dead, he won't do any further damage unless otherwise asked. So big props to Counter Revolution's driver for giving Ray the go-ahead so we can see more destruction.
Ray looks over, asks "One more?", and apparently gets the okay. So he once again attacks one of Counter Revolution's now-defunct disks, spinning Counter Revolution's entire body through the air and bouncing off the arena wall. Simply beautiful.
With that, Counter Revolution is declared KO'ed. Replays, a brief interview, and it's onward to the next fight.
On one side of the ticket, it's Complete Control. Viewers from the Comedy Central days will recognize that name as a middleweight clamping and lifting robot. This is a different weight class, so presumably this is a full rebuild, but yes, it's still a clamping and lifting machine. Its builder, Derek Young, hasn't competed since those Comedy Central days. The hosts say that he had a villainous persona back then. I personally don't remember that, but I also don't have the time or ambition to go back and check to see whether that's true.
Actually, as the hosts continue to discuss Derek Young, and since I'm sure that all of these studio segments were taped after the fights had concluded, the whole conversation seems to be a winking nod toward what's about to happen. So now I care even less whether what they're saying about the history of the sport is accurate.
We visit Chuck Pitzer to find out about the latest addition to Team Raptor: Ghost Raptor. As always, we learn only one fact during these pre-taped segments -- for this one, we learn that Ghost Raptor has a homing device mounted to its body so it can track its opponent anywhere in the arena. This sounds like it could potentially be useful, but the actual application of this technology in a combat scenario is left unexplained.
The hosts take a look at the supposed rankings. I choose to ignore the numbers, as this is the only opportunity we get to see what the robots actually look like before the in-arena introductions. Complete Control's lifting mechanism appears to be similar to the middleweight version, although the top bar extends high into the air (I assume for self-righting purposes). Ghost Raptor's primary weapon is a spinning bar with hammer-like ends mounted over the robot's body at roughly a 30° angle.
Let's move ahead to the arena introductions. I'm looking at Ghost Raptor, uncertain of where the homing device is mounted. It's never mentioned again, so I guess I'm supposed to just forget about it. After Complete Control's introduction, before Derek Young leaves the arena, he reveals a large wrapped box which he places inside the clamping arms of his robot. On the box is a tag: "Dear Ghost Raptor, our deepest condolences. Love, Complete Control." The box remains in the robot's jaws as Derek leaves to start the fight, so obviously it's some kind of surprise defensive device.
The show uses the mystery of what's in the box to go to commercial. When we return, the situation is recapped. Eventually, the fight begins.
Ghost Raptor begins to spin up and meets Complete Control in the center of the arena. The spinning bar connects squarely with the box, tearing it open and revealing that inside, there is a net. Which naturally tangles up the spinning bar, preventing it from spinning. You know, the thought briefly crossed my mind that something like that might be inside, but that can't possibly be legal, can it? Nets have been forbidden since the Robot Wars days in the mid-'90s for exactly this reason.
The primary objective having been completed, Complete Control now needs to get free of its own net. It does so, leaving the net (and the majority of the box) in the possession of Ghost Raptor. Ghost Raptor gamely tries to spin the weapon and tries to spin the entire body of the robot in an effort to remove the net, but that isn't going anywhere.
Ghost Raptor lifts and lowers the now motionless bar. So apparently that's another feature of the robot -- it can change the angle of its attack. Good to know now.
The fight is stopped because -- just as I assumed -- entanglement devices aren't allowed. Complete Control's team tells the referee that they read the rules and that what they did isn't illegal. The show goes to some brief replays (brief because there's precious little to recap), then back to the confusion surrounding the BattleBox over whether what Complete Control did was or wasn't legal. From the driver's platform, Derek Young tells the camera that when the BattleBots rules were revised for this tournament, there was no section forbidding entanglement devices. That's surprising.
Chuck Pitzer and Derek Young discuss the rules. Derek tells Chuck that the rules said "no fishing line, ball bearings, et cetera." Well, now I wish I had a copy of the rules. Because depending on the context of that paragraph, I would expect that a net would be included in the "et cetera."
A ruling on the legality of that net will come down later in the episode. For now, the show is going to summarize the four preliminary fights that were deemed too uninteresting to be aired in their entirety.
Sewer Snake Stinger took on veteran BattleBots spinner fanatic Brian Nave and his robot Captain Shrederator. A lifter vs. full-body spinner fight seems like something that would be aired in its entirety, but Stinger flipped Captain Shrederator on its head in roughly a minute, making things look easy.
Christian Carlberg (of Minion and OverKill fame) debuted a new lifter (I assume) named OverDrive. It took on a new robot named Chomp, which appears to have a pinning/flamethrower design. The two robots drove around a lot, but Chomp eventually backed into a screw, which lifted it up and stranded it on the edge of the arena.
A British bot named Radioactive took on a high school team and their robot Sweet Revenge. Sweet Revenge was built with a bar spinner, but the weapon didn't function properly, so Radioactive deployed several ineffectual hits with an ax in a three-minute fight that looks like it was really boring.
Hypershock, a robot with a vertical spinning weapon, took on Mohawk, a robot with a grabbing weapon (and fun flame effects) in a fight between two teams that came from the same family. The show was banking on the family feud making for a compelling story, but Mohawk broke down pretty much right after the first hit, resulting in a very short fight.
Which means that the only fight left without a winner is Complete Control vs. Ghost Raptor. The show will give us the verdict after the commercial break.
Here's how Molly explains it: She describes the relevant section of the rules as "a gray area." "But due to the fact that BattleBots has historically always banned the use of entanglement devices, the fight has been nullified and they have agreed to a rematch." I'd still like to know exactly what makes this a gray area, but hey -- the show got some dramatic controversy to anchor the episode, which is all that matters.
The hosts discuss whether there was honor in Derek Young trying to find a loophole in the rules. Without any facts on which I can base my own opinion, and since these hosts have not yet proven to be reliable sources of information on robotic combat, the conversation doesn't have much weight. I'm just surprised that after the number of times he brought up the strategy in last week's episode, Kenny seems unmoved by that fact that somebody finally did jam up a spinning robot's weapon!
In the pits, Alison interviews Chuck about the rematch. She points out that in robotic combat, builders generally don't like to win by default (using the example of an opponent being unable to get in the arena due to mechanical failure. Which is true -- most builders don't like to win by forfeit). So which is it: Did BattleBots really make the mistake of allowing that loophole into their rules, thereby forcing a rematch to occur because they couldn't "legally" disqualify Complete Control for using the net? Or was the net deemed to be illegal within the rules as written, allowing Chuck to choose either to receive a win due to Complete Control's disqualification or to determine the winner via a rematch? There's a distinction between those two scenarios, and the show doesn't make it clear which is the case.
From the judges' table, Faruq announces "it's grudge match time," which only confuses the issue further. Then again, the show keeps misusing the term "TKO," so maybe I shouldn't listen so much to what these people are saying.
We once again see the twitch test before the fight begins. It turns out that Complete Control has a flamethrower embedded in its lifting mechanism. I suppose I could view the method in which this show provides information either as a slow, unsteady drip or as a fun Easter egg hunt.
The fight begins anew. As Ghost Raptor spins up, Complete Control's wedge hits a seam in the floor, popping the robot into the air. Ghost Raptor buzzes around Complete Control, not quite hitting it. Ghost Raptor instead drives into a bumper, stopping its weapon cold. The bumper swats Ghost Raptor away.
As Ghost Raptor starts to spin back up, it bumps into Complete Control once. Complete Control stops driving anywhere, although the lifting arm and flamethrower are still somewhat functional. Ghost Raptor gets its weapon up to full speed and drives it into Complete Control's lifting mechanism. The impact snaps Ghost Raptor's bar in half. Oops.
Complete Control is able to drive again, so Ghost Raptor gives chase. There is a small lifting arm embedded in Ghost Raptor's body, so Ghost Raptor switches strategies and tries to flip Complete Control over. It gets a minor lift in, but Complete Control stays on its wheels. So far, Complete Control has been able to produce a flame and move its lifting equipment up and down, but not much else.
Ghost Raptor spends its time trying to get under the vulnerable sides of Complete Control's body, but the team can't get the timing down of when to get under and activate the lifting arm. Complete Control is mostly just trying to continue driving.
Ghost Raptor starts to become its own worst enemy, getting hit by a sledgehammer and nearly flipping over backward when it quickly throws itself into reverse. Complete Control can't drive all that well, but it can still move forward, and succeeds in getting its forks underneath Ghost Raptor. Ghost Raptor isn't centered well enough for the flip attempt to be completely effective, but Complete Control manipulates its lifting mechanism enough to bring Ghost Raptor back down onto its head. And now it's clear that Ghost Raptor's lifting forks are caught on Complete Control's lifting forks.
Complete Control drags Ghost Raptor around the arena as Ghost Raptor tries to free itself. It eventually does, landing on its wheels. So we go back to watching both robots try to successfully attack each other.
Ghost Raptor misses on a lift, but then uses the lowered lifting arm to press down on Complete Control's body and push it into a wall. Complete Control can't drive anywhere, and starts activating its lifting mechanism to jostle one tire into touching the floor.
Ghost Raptor continues to attack, successfully lifting Complete Control from the rear. This allows us to see a chain dangling from Complete Control's body -- I'd wager that that means that the robot has lost one side of its drive. And maybe getting itself high-centered on the chain to boot.
Time is up, so this goes to a judges' decision. Which will be revealed after the commercial break. It's rare that a single fight can be used to create cliffhangers for three separate commercial breaks.
As we await the announcement of the winner, Chris says that it's anybody's guess as to who will receive the victory. I... think I have a pretty good idea of how this is going to end.
Faruq says, "The judges have scored the battle, and the results are in." The audience applauds the thing that was expected to happen happening. The score isn't announced, but as I expected, Ghost Raptor is the victor. That wasn't too difficult of a call -- Ghost Raptor may have received significant weapon damage, but Complete Control suffered significant drive damage, allowing Ghost Raptor to be more aggressive.
So now that we know which twelve robots have won their preliminary fights, the only thing left to do is announce which four robots will receive the wild card spots into the upcoming single-elimination bracket.
Overhaul receives a wild card spot, which makes sense since based on what we saw of its fight against Lock-Jaw, you could make the argument that it should have won. Warhead receives a wild card spot because... it looks cool, I guess? And Witch Doctor and Chomp receive wild card spots because otherwise there would be only one female builder left in the competition. I mean, the show doesn't actually say that, but they also don't explain what the criteria were for the wild card positions.
(To be fair, I can understand Witch Doctor getting a spot based on its own merits. But from the few seconds we saw of Chomp in action, I'd like to know why it gets to advance over Nightmare, Captain Shrederator, or Counter Revolution (if Counter Revolution could be repaired in time).)
So there you have it -- we have now seen (more or less) the sixteen robots that will be competing for the title of BattleBots champion. We'll kick off the brackets next week, but until then, I'm going to put out a missing person notice for Bobak Ferdowsi. We haven't seen him since the first act of the first episode, and I'm getting a little worried for his safety.